


Burnt Curtains

by TotallyARealPerson



Series: Avatar: the Last Airbender fics [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23862301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotallyARealPerson/pseuds/TotallyARealPerson
Summary: Zuko goes back in time to the fateful Agni Kai. Problem is, he's also, like, eighty and he doesn't have time for any of that shit.
Series: Avatar: the Last Airbender fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719610
Comments: 46
Kudos: 1177
Collections: Astral_Phoenix108's Library





	Burnt Curtains

Fire Lord Zuko looked up at the ceiling, and then toward the bright window clouded by red, and gold and black patterns. "Didn't I get rid of those drapes thirty years ago?" 

And then he realized he didn't care, because there was a council meeting he was supposed to get to. 

Until he realized he could see perfectly out of his left eye, which was something he hadn't been able to do since he was a child and he'd sort of forgotten the feeling. It was weird, like someone dumping a bucket of water on your head and chucking the bucket out of a nearby window, burning your long-forgotten drapes, and cackling away on an air glider. Man, he missed Aang. 

This was weird. Like, _weeeeeiiiiiirrrrrd_ , weird. 

So he took a step out of his room and was immediately accosted by a servant, who he didn't listen to probably as much as he should have. But this was before his Agni Kai, at least, so maybe he would have time to prepare himself to not go into the war room? (Yeah, right. He didn't want those kids to get themselves sacrificed. He would have burned his own eye off before kowtowing to that.) 

But no. Apparently, in his infinite wisdom, Zuko managed to piss off the Fire Lord, like, yesterday. You just missed it by one day, you brain-dead moron, why did it have to be today? But no. Zuko wasn't stupid. 

So he went into the Agni Kai chamber, let the silk shawl fall to the ground, and proceeded to beat his father's fucking teeth in. 

"SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT BEING HALF-BLIND!" Zuko screeched, jumping his father with all the grace of someone who'd been restraining his fury for literally years. Seed lightning crackled under his skin, making his hair stand up. 

(He had been, too. 

The position of Fire Lord is stressful enough with perfect vision, when you could look out the corner of your eye for assassins and read without turning your head fourty-five degrees. Fighting the cause of that imperfect vision was incredibly cathartic.) 

The entire room was stunned into silence as Zuko undid his phoenix plume, letting the silky tresses fall to his shoulders and doing them up in a topknot again, in the style he'd preferred for the past few decades. "I claim the title for Fire Lord, as Agni may bear witness to my being the Favourite," Zuko said, formally claiming the title. 

The nearest Fire Sage unceremoniously plucked the gold pin out of Ozai's hair and placed it in Zuko's topknot. "All hail Fire Lord Zuko." 

The room was too stunned to reply, and that was okay. He left the room. 

When the doors closed with a small 'click', the room positively exploded. 

~?~ 

"Chief Hakoda, Chief Arnook, Earth Kings Bumi and Kuei, thank you for meeting me to discuss a prospect of peace." 

Yeah, you fucking heard right. Zuko wasn't wasting a single goddamned second of his time condoning the war. The second he'd left the Arena, he'd gone to the Hawk room and written a proposal for peace for both the Water Tribe leaders and the men commanding the last scraps of the Earth Kingdom, and then into his office to start systematically eliminating all the racist and classist policies. 

He and the other leaders discussed everything. War reparations, prisoners of war, who will be punished for war crimes and who was just following orders, how they would be reimbursed, which Fire Nation colonies would be staying in place (those older than twenty years and no less would be kept established), trading routes, reparations, immigration rights, and anything else had was deemed relevant. 

Uncle was an amazing negotiator too. Tea was a surprisingly good, and the White Lotus he'd 'just' discovered existed was helping in far more ways than one. 

Zuko was working hard to repair everything the war made worse by any stretch of the imagination, including bringing back the Dragons and remaking other bending practices legal (he even redistributed all the stolen scrolls), refused to condone the handling of second-hand citizens or slaves, and by the actions of his predecessors, especially Fire Lord Sozin's destroying the Air Temples or killing Avatar Roku (which caused great outrage and nearly sent the Fire Lands into civil war until Zuko screamed the formal equivalent of 'FUCK YOU AND FUCK WHATEVER MOTHERFUCKERY IS COMING OUT OF YOUR SHITFUCKERING PIEHOLES' to their faces). 

He let Ty Lee have her life in the circus. Azula was given mostly-free reign but kept away from his office, bedroom, or records rooms and was eventually confined to a mental hospital, but Ozai was confined to his room, the adjacent toilets, and the hallways leading to the nearest exit. Mai was constantly bored, but Zuko had lived a life already trying to please her, and didn't feel like applying an image of his wife onto a literal child and trying to mould this Mai into his Mai. That wouldn't be fair to this Mai.

At sixteen, the Avatar reappeared, as scheduled. Hakoda told Zuko immediately, and the Fire Lord dropped everything to go see Aang. 

People were obviously still very wary around Fire Nation officials, but Zuko's face was known everywhere, from the near-faded thin scar he'd gotten on his cheek training with his swords to the soft gold to the distinctive topknot string. People bowed to him as he walked past, and he smiled at them, being every bit as warm as he knew a leader should be, and Hakoda met him immediately as he got of his dragon, politely bowing. 

"Do you have any news about Kya?" Hakoda asked as he led Zuko to the far-better-constructed (now that they'd gotten their waterbenders back) where they were keeping Aang. 

"No," Zuko sighed and tucked his hands into his sleeves. "It's been six years, and the Southern Raiders took her. I don't think she's still alive. I'm so sorry. I already have Yon Rha in prison, and he'll stay there for the rest of his life according to Fire law. If you need to get vindication for your wife according to your customs and Water laws, we can turn him over to you." 

Hakoda looked at Zuko. "Thank you, Fire Lord Zuko, but I don't think that's necessary. If you could punch him in the face and say it's from Chief Hakoda, that would be appreciated, though." 

"Much obliged," Zuko answered darkly. 

Aang was still sleeping when they entered through the entrance in the igloo. 

Katara, who'd slowly been gaining more Northern knowledge about healing, was still looking over Aang. She bowed to Zuko lowly. 

"Katara, how many times have I told you never to bow to me?" Zuko pulled her of the floor. 

"I'm sorry, Fire Lord Zuko." 

"And none of that formal titles shit, either. I'm just Zuko." 

Katara giggled, and it occurred to him that she may have a crush. Well, no, he wasn't going to let that continue. The closest person Zuko's ever come to crushing on someone other than Mai had been Aang, and he wasn't going after Mai anymore. Neither was he going after Aang, because he refused to be a creepy, predatory bloodsucker. That would suck.

"How's the Avatar?" Zuko asked, taking a seat at Aang's bedside. 

Katara immediately became serious. "He just needs rest, I think. He was rather energetic when he emerged from the ice bubble with his flying bison, so they should be alright after a few days." 

Zuko stood and looked at Hakoda. "Permission to take Aang? You hardly have a vegetarian diet suitable for him, and perhaps Fire Nation cuisine would accommodate him better." 

Hakoda thought for a second. "Lord Zuko, I fear other political parties will see this as a ploy to restart the war with the Avatar at your side." 

Zuko almost gaped, and settled instead on his eyes widening. "Hakoda, you're free to come with me too, or send your children as insurance, but we really do have more plant variety than here. It's only for the sake of his diet; he'd be far more likely to throw up meat than eat it properly, since his body has literally never processed meat before." 

Hakoda thought for a moment. "Very well. I'll come, and so will Katara. Sokka will stay here and act as Chief in my absence." 

Zuko nodded. "Would you prefer to travel on Sparky," damn, he missed Toph, "Or his Bison?" 

"I'll travel with you, Lord Zuko. Katara will go with the boy," Hakoda decided. 

Zuko nodded and sat back down next to Aang. The boy was shivering; Zuko adjusted the blanket back over his shoulders and settled in to keep vigil. 

~?~ 

It was a few days before Aang flew back to the Fire Nation with Lord Zuko, who insisted on being called by his name and held a passionate objection to titles. 

They drank a lot of tea, had a lot of lessons in politics, learned how to react responsibly, how to contact the spirits, learned waterbending through Katara, and several wartime habits, like keeping an extra eye on whoever was coming through a door, because you never knew who was an assassin coming for you until they tried to kill you. 

Zuko acted like such an old man sometimes. He had a disposition kinda like Monk Gyatso, like 'all these people are idiots, and sometimes I think I should burn everything to the ground and start over', but also like 'can I throw pastries at my council's heads now?', and Aang doesn't know what happened to Gyatso, but he thinks that Zuko's not a bad mentor. 

And he really isn't. They act like Aang always knew a friend was supposed to act, and didn't take him as exception just because he's the Avatar. Like, Katara and the peasant kids outside the palace got the same treatment. Zuko knew them by name and everything, and it was just so much healthier an environment than fire, blood, and death. 

Zuko told Aang he still sometimes had nightmares about that. Ozai wasn't a good parent, and actually once asked Zuko what a true leader demands. Zuko had answered 'respect and willingness to follow', and Ozai shouted at him. 'FEAR, BLOOD, AND DEATH IS WHAT A TRUE LEADER DEMANDS, ZUKO!' Yeah. Aang was glad Ozai wasn't around when he woke up. 

I mean, there's a reason why Aang wasn't allowed in a certain wing of the castle, and he respected Zuko a lot for not killing Ozai in cold blood. ~~Which was exactly why Zuko wasn't telling Aang that that part of the wing actually contained a sociopathic pyromaniacal Azula and a shrine to his missing mother. Zuko's dad's ashes were buried under the tree in the turtleduck pond.~~

Yes, Zuko had him killed without a single second's hesitation. He was hardly stupid, and the mantle of country leader tended to condition ineptitude away. Leaving Ozai alive was practically begging for another war to break out, but he knew Fire Nation burial rights had to be observed with someone as powerful and important as him, so he'd compromised. He let Chief Hakoda kill Ozai, and then observed the burial rites. 

But he was also not about to let that shit that happened with Kuvira or Amon to happen again, so he tinkered with foreign governments and made sure all the formerly-occupied territory is back under control of a competent Earth Monarch and they weren't doing anything racist towards the Fire Nation people of those formerly-occupied territories, and was slowly removing nonbender prejudice. 

But he was bored out of his skull most of the time. Reading budget reports and organising everything got really boring, especially when you've been doing this damned job for seventy fucking years, so he quickly played pranks on exactly everyone. 

Like putting red dye in Katara's clothing when it had to be washed and watch as she freaked out about how to get it out. Aang's reaction to the gold dye had been far more tame, and he didn't like that very much. 

(His pranks were boring him out of his skull too, actually.) 

But his paperwork stopped boring him the instant the Bei Fong family was brought up. He left Uncle in charge as regent (because executions for any member of the royal family save Ozai was the only thing he absolutely refused to budge on) with the order that he not restart the war in his absence (because formality and legal clarity is everything), and went to visit the Bei Fong family on his own dragon. 

Toph wasn't that different as he remembered her to be. She was too polite and put together and quiet, far too quiet. 

"Toph, may I speak with you alone?" Zuko asked. 

Toph looked vaguely surprised by the polite dismissal of her parents, but followed Zuko outside. "Waddaya need, your highness?" 

"I know you're a bending prodigy, and I want you to help teach the Avatar," Zuko cut to the chase immediately. 

"I'll be allowed free reign of the palace, right?" 

"Anything you need." 

"And you won't restrict my movements at all or spout rhetoric about how I need to be more like a lady and I'm useless because I'm blind?" she checked. 

"Toph," he sighed, "if I thought you were useless, I wouldn't be asking you to train the Avatar. Plus, you're the greatest Earthbender in the world, and your personality is halfway bearable. You'll do great." 

Toph's father didn't really like that, but you have to pick your battles when the fucking Fire Lord and the Avatar were asking for your daughter because a spirit swamp told them she was the one they needed. He knew what happened when you ignored or annoyed a spirit swamp. He got a handler for Toph while she was there, and let her pack her own bags. 

Toph's mother didn't like that, and continued protesting and yelling because she's blind, how is she supposed to teach ANYTHING?, until Katara started yelling, and then Toph was yelling, and Zuko was covering Aang's ears, and Iroh was making tea, and then the tea was spilled, and now Iroh's yelling, and maybe the carpet's on fire, and Zuko's up a tree and he won't come down. 

"Iroh, help! Zuko's up a tree and he won't come down!"

**Author's Note:**

> 1: I don't care if you make a parody based on this. Just cite me, okay?  
> 2: No, I will not continue this.  
> 3: I love you all.


End file.
